Toronto police said Monday they have laid a second homicide charge in connection with a January shooting that left an unarmed man dead.
City police said in a statement that investigators now believe 45-year-old Tyshawn Lee was killed as the result of “criminal negligence,” but will not further specify.
The second-degree murder charge against 24-year-old Michael James Ball and Robert Wilton Ball, also 24, is in addition to the first-degree murder charge that was filed March 15. According to CBC News, Michael Ball was previously suspected of both the murder and attempted murder of a 21-year-old man, Devontay Hackett, and had a record for other crimes.
Reports in the hours after the Jan. 26 shooting that killed Lee said that his body was wrapped in plastic.
Police said the shooting was “characterized by a man who remained at the scene attempting to cover up the scene and preventing police from taking a statement from witnesses.” Lee’s body was recovered the next day.
Police Chief Mark Saunders said shortly after Lee’s death that a number of witnesses identified two suspects in the case and were consistent in reporting the identities of the male suspects’ and both the words “something like it’s going to be white” and “this is a white guy.”
Saunders had also said that Lee was “no longer an ‘armed offender,’ ” referring to a separate police investigation into the killing of Lionel Bailey, 28, which took place in the same downtown area.
Last month, police announced that they were seeking an additional person in the death of Bailey, who they have said was a non-minor offender who shot a number of times.
“The victim in the murder of Lionel Bailey was shot on his own property,” police said in a press release at the time. “The investigation is in its early stages and it is premature to state a motive for the homicide.”
The Washington Post’s Elissa Strauss contributed to this report.